With the Quebec Open coming up...

Some say you learn from competition and I agree with that. You learn about your style, about how to deliver a kata, it subtleties. If only the sheer pressure of not looking like a fool in front of fellow martial artists, you apply yourself and practice twice as hard.

I'd been practicing kenpo for almost three years when the idea of competing for the first time was seeded into my mind. We'd just picked a bo class starting in September, me and my son, and we were coming to the end of the 12 weeks session, so around mid-December. All along those twelve weeks, we'd learned a kata, open style, "built" by our instructor for the whole class. Important to note that I was only one of two adults in that class. By the second to last hour of class, our instructor was kind of seeing that I'd made big progress with the kata. Thing was, I liked it so much, I was going to the basement of our house with a smallish broomstick and I practiced the kata. At the time, I didn't think about competing, I just wanted to learn the kata and get better with it. I couldn't spin the bo in the basement, but I could memorize the strikes and the flow of the kata, that was good enough for me.

In the last hour before the Christmas break is when our instructor asked me the question: "Why don't you enter the local competition in February?" I went "hrm, maybe, maybe I could", thinking about my son too. See, I do about everything in karate for and with my son. He's been competing since 2004, usually once a year, at that same local competition. Never had he competed with a weapon. Over the Christmas break, I made a deal with him: if I entered the competition, it was to present my (our) bo kata, but he had to enter it too, with the bo kata. I knew he wanted to have me compete, even though he'd probably have no shot at seeing me since he'd be competing too, butI knew he wanted daddy to compete. We talked about it a bit. He understood that it meant he would have to practice to be ready to present the kata and he agreed to the deal. :)

In the last hour before the Christmas break is when our instructor asked me the question: "Why don't you enter the local competition in February?" I went "hrm, maybe, maybe I could", thinking about my son too. See, I do about everything in karate for and with my son. He's been competing since 2004, usually once a year, at that same local competition. Never had he competed with a weapon. Over the Christmas break, I made a deal with him: if I entered the competition, it was to present my (our) bo kata, but he had to enter it too, with the bo kata. I knew he wanted to have me compete, even though he'd probably have no shot at seeing me since he'd be competing too, butI knew he wanted daddy to compete. We talked about it a bit. He understood that it meant he would have to practice to be ready to present the kata and he agreed to the deal. :)

I was a nervous wreck that day, much more so than my son, the competition veteran. I was to present a weapon kata with my bo, and a traditional kata called Cat One. My son was entering in weapon and traditional katas as well as fighting.

It started out well for me until, oh well, let's go to the video...


Keep in mind that at that time, I'd been practicing with the bo for maybe 14 hours of class and maybe a couple hours outside of class, on my own. That drop devastated me but that footage helped me understand some things I did wrong, like why I dropped it (I wasn't even facing the right way, hehe). My son's bo kata was very tentative. I can say that today, but at the time, I was simply proud of him for simply presenting it. While I got disqualified for the drop, he brought back a medal for thrid place (out of three but who cares, I was proud of him).

Then came my traditional kata. That went better, but still, I could feel myself shake, and well, let's go to the video again...


As you can see, on a couple occasions, I'm shaking, my footing isn't sure, well let's call it a growing experience. Still, that performance was good enough for third place out of five, also giving me a medal. We both brough back medals and we both grew on the day.

Even better, I wanted more. I knew another competition was coming up a month later and I wanted in. My son wasn't too sure, but got convinced as he saw me practice more and more. I offered him to take some private bo class and he reacted very enthusiastically. The best was when he was taking his private classes, I was allowed to practice kinda close by in the dojo and was allowed to listen in on the instructor's comments. They helped me great deal.

When the second competition came, well, I blinded them with a much improved bo kata, although that drop haunted me and made me nervous. Again, why not go to the video...


No drops meant first place for daddy and a nice little trophy :)



My son presented his bo kata and from the video, we saw improvements. He brought back a medal in fighting that day, after losing in the semi finals.

There was a third competition to be had, but that one only for the 17 and under. When that one was announced, my son came to me and for the first time in three years, kinda forcefully told me: "I *WANT* to enter that one!" :)

Not only that, but by then, our bo instructor had added new combinations of strikes to my kata. Well my son asked him to show them to him and he asked me to help him practice them. How neat was that!!!

He kept practicing and when the day of that third competition came, he came in maybe 5th place out of 9 with his bo kata but won his class with his traditional kata, a feat he'd never done before. His traditional katas had never really been his forte, but he'd practiced so much in the weeks coming up to the competition, mostly with his bo, but also in traditional, that he'd improve his karate overall. He lost in final in fighting too, bringing home second place.

The following day, when I brought up the possibility of us both entering the Quebec Open, the big NASKA sanctioned competition in Quebec City, he was all ear. He'd never entered it but now I felt he was ready to try it and even better, he seemed to fell like he was ready too, like he'd built enough confidence in him that he was ready for it. That big competition is this coming Saturday, April 28th.
Again, he will be entering it in all three categories while I'll concentrate on weapon and traditional kata.

When I said that you learn from competing, I also meant that competing forces you to learn. Up until a couple weeks ago, I knew my latest kata, called Cat Two, kinda well but didn't feel too good about it. I made the conscious decision to learn it, practice it, concentrate on it, since I wanted to present a strong kata at the competition. The result? I feel much better with the kata today. I've learned subtleties about it that I didn't feel only a couple weeks ago. Will I win? who knows, but I'll give it everything I have...